Evolutionary Psychopathology and Recurrent Pathways to Depression - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Evolutionary Psychopathology and Recurrent Pathways to Depression

Bryon Cunningham California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles

Contact : bcunningham1@alliant.edu

Abstract In this poster, I outline four recurrent pathways to depression suggested by recent research in evolutionary psychopathology, namely: (a) failure to achieve adaptive goals (b) helplessness in aversive environments (c) defeat in competitions for social rank, and (d) loneliness due to social isolation. Understanding these recurrent pathways to depression from an evolutionary perspective can help inform the conceptualization, diagnosis, and treatment of depressive disorders. It can also help clinicians make more informed judgments about the adaptive significance

• f the depressive symptoms of people in treatment. And it helps demonstrate the value of

evolutionary theory to clinical science and clinical practice.

Evolutionary Psychopathology (EPP) The application of evolutionary theory to the conceptualization, investigation, and treatment of mental disorders.

Researchers working within EPP have applied evolutionary theory to a wide range of mental disorders, including anxiety disorders (e.g., Price, 2003), depressive disorders (e.g., Gilbert, 2006), bipolar disorder (e.g., Gilbert et al., 2007), obsessive-compulsive disorder (e.g., Brüne, 2006), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (e.g., Baird et al., 2000), autism spectrum disorder (e.g., Ploeger & Galis, 2011), eating disorders (e.g., Guisinger, 2003), and substance use disorders (e.g., Nesse, 2002).

Biological Evolution

Biological evolution is any process of (a) variation, (b) selection, and (c) transmission

• f organisms’ biological traits or behaviors.

Biological Adaptation: A biological trait or behavior that: (i) was produced by selection processes in ancestral environments; (ii) produces beneficial effects in the context of one or more environments.

Psychological Evolution

Psychological evolution is any process of (a) variation, (b) selection, and (c) transmission

• f organisms’ psychological traits or behaviors.

Psychological Adaptation: A psychological trait or behavior that: (i) was produced by selection processes in ancestral or childhood environments; (ii) produces beneficial effects in the context of one or more environments.

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Mental Disorders

Mental disorders are disturbances to the basic mental processes that control adaptive actions, resulting in adaptive deficits in perception, cognition, emotion, motivation, action, and/or physiological regulation.

Depression

Depression is a disturbance to the basic mental processes that control adaptive actions, resulting in pessimism (cognition), dysphoria (emotion), depletion (motivation), inhibition (action), and dysregulation (physiology).

The Principle of Adaptive Action

Basic mental processes evolved to control adaptive actions.

“Basic” mental processes: species-typical; superordinate; e.g., perception, cognition, emotion, motivation. Adaptive actions: Goal-directed behaviors that produce beneficial effects in the context of particular environments.

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Pathways to Depression – Supported by Evolutionary Psychopathology

• 1. Failure to achieve adaptive goals.
• 2. Helplessness in aversive environments.
• 3. Defeat in competitions for social rank.
• 4. Loneliness due to social isolation.

Pathways to Depression – Widely Recognized

Genetic traits (Dunn et al., 2016), epigenetic traits (Vialou et al., 2013), neurotransmitter hypoactivity (Werner & Coveñas, 2010), grey matter volume reduction (Arnone et al., 2013), hormone dysregulation (Schiller et al., 2015), adverse childhood experiences like neglect (De Venter et al., 2012), traumatic events (Mandelli et al., 2015), chronic stress (Hammen, 2005), bereavements (Karam et al., 2009), high levels of neuroticism or low levels of extraversion (Jylhä & Isometsä, 2006), some personality disorders (Newton-Howes et al., 2014). Also seasonal depression, substance-induced depression, disease-induced depression, inflammation-induced depression, and starvation- induced depression (for a survey, see Rantala et al., 2017).

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Failure to Achieve Adaptive Goals

Optimal Foraging Theory (Winterhalder & Smith, 2000)

• 1. All animals have limited resources (i.e. time, energy, raw materials).
• 2. Foraging behaviors (i.e. action/environment selection) vary in terms of:

(a) productivity, i.e. the yield of consumable plants/animals; (b) expenditure, i.e. the amount of resource depletion.

• 3. Animals that forage in a way that increases the ratio of (a) productivity

to (b) expenditure have higher biological fitness.

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Resource Allocation Hypothesis of Depression

• 4. For humans and perhaps other primates, the valence of emotions

(positive/negative) and moods (high/low) helps optimize: (a) foraging behaviors; subsequently generalized to (b) any behaviors with productivity/expenditure tradeoff.

• 5. Negative emotions and low moods associated with depression may be

the result of an evolved system to protect humans from wasted efforts.

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(Nesse, 2000, 2019)

BAS/BIS (Gray, 1990)

• i. Behavioral Activation System
• ii. Behavioral Inhibition System

Goal Disengagement

Disengagement from unattainable goals protects from depression.

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(Wrosch et al., 2013)

Helplessness in Aversive Environments

Helplessness (Overmier, 2002; Seligman & Maier, 1967)

• 1. Animals exposed to inescapable shocks subsequently fail to attempt to

escape from escapable shocks. In other words, they respond with helplessness.

• 2. Helplessness: passivity in response to prolonged aversive stimuli.
• 3. Features of helplessness in animals overlap with symptoms of depression,

including motivational depletion and behavioral inhibition.

• 4. Helplessness is highly evolutionarily conserved across species.

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Hopelessness (Abramson et al., 1995)

• 5. Hopelessness: (a) expectation of a negative future, (b) belief that no actions

can alter the future, (c) dysphoria.

• 6. Features of hopelessness in humans overlap with symptoms of depression,

including cognitive pessimism and emotional dysphoria.

• 7. Helplessness/hopelessness may be an evolved system to conserve energy

and minimize damage from uncontrollable aversive environments.

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Defeat in Competitions for Social Rank

Social Hierarchies (Sloman & Gilbert, 2000)

• 1. Many groups of social animals form social hierarchies, i.e. patterns of social rank

within a group.

• 2. Social rank: Relative dominance or subordination of animals within the same

social group. Social rank is mediated by agonistic behaviors.

• 3. Agonistic behaviors: Behaviors related to conflict between animals, including

ritualized threat displays, physical aggression, and submission.

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Involuntary Defeat Strategy (Sloman, 2000, Stevens & Price, 2015)

• 4. Social animals who lose a dominance dispute often exhibit a collection of

behaviors known as the Involuntary Defeat Strategy (IDS).

• 5. IDS in non-human animals includes submissive behaviors, reduced motivation,

behavioral inhibition. IDS in humans also includes dysphoria, lack of energy, and diminished self-esteem.

• 6. IDS may be an evolved system for adjusting to the loss of social rank while still

remaining a member of a group.

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Loneliness Due to Social Isolation

Social Isolation (Cacioppo et al., 2015)

• 3. Objective social isolation: scarcity of social relationships and/or paucity of time

spent in social activities.

• 4. Subjective social isolation: feelings of loneliness caused by too few or poor

quality relationships. Subjective, but not objective, social isolation is depressogenic.

• 5. Loneliness may be an evolved system that motivates animals to avoid social

isolation and engage in social integration, thereby enhancing biological fitness.

Social Integration (Kappeler & van Schaik, 2002)

• 1. Social integration: consistent engagement with a stable group of conspecifics

through actions like proximity maintenance, reciprocal altruism, mutualistic hunting and foraging, acquiring allies, courting mates, and caring for offspring.

• 2. Social integration promotes biological fitness, i.e. the probability of survival and
• reproduction. Social integration improves predator detection, dilutes risk of

predation, improves foraging yields, provides opportunities for mating, and improves conservation of heat, water, and energy.

earth.com shutterstock

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Treatment Modalities for Specific Symptoms of Depression Treatment Goals for Specific Pathways to Depression 1 2

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